Annie’s top quirky non-fiction picks

Ngā Tino pukapuka paki whanokē e ai ki a Anne

Eating one's own kind is completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons relating to famine, burial rites, and medicinal remedies.

The great Norse myths are woven into the fabric of our storytelling - from Tolkien, Alan Garner and Rosemary Sutcliff to Game of Thrones and Marvel Comics. They are also an inspiration for Neil Gaiman's own award-bedecked, bestselling fiction.

When America entered World War II in 1941, they faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send books to troops. In 1943, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in.

What if history had a sound track? What would it tell us about ourselves? Based on a thirty-part BBC Radio series and podcast, Noise explores the human dramas that have revolved around sound at various points in the last 100,000 years.

A chronicle of Victorian London's worst cholera outbreak traces the day-by-day efforts of Dr. John Snow, who put his own life on the line in his efforts to prove his previously dismissed contagion theory about how the epidemic was spreading.

This is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story.

We know about the historical dramas of Tudor times - the court of Henry VIII and the break from Rome. But what was life really like for a commoner like you or me? Ruth Goodman has spent months sleeping, eating and (not) washing like a Tudor.

Did Laura Ingalls cross paths with a band of mass murderers? Why was a Garth Williams bunny tale dubbed "integrationist propaganda"? For adults who are curious about children's books and their creators.

This is the biography of Grandma Gatewood, hiking celebrity. Emma Gatewood was the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person, man or woman, to walk it twice and three times - and she did it all after the age of 65.

Mary Anne returned from a trip suffering from what doctors believed was rare hepatitis. Then she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer. This is the true story of a son and his mother, who start a book club that brings them together.

This book may be tiny – less than 60 pages of text – but I challenge you to read it without teary eyes. Read and remember why sport – cricket in particular – is so much a part of the New Zealand psyche.